


The Disappearance of Aya Maruyama

by Sunshine_Wishes



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Implied Kidnapping, Mystery, but it's gonna be a lot, i am so sorry maya, i love the pastel palettes girls so much this is painful, i'm hoping, implied running away, looooots more tags to be added as the story progresses, multi-chaptered, not quite sure how many chapters quite yet, roughly bi-weekly updates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2019-11-24 05:11:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18161885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunshine_Wishes/pseuds/Sunshine_Wishes
Summary: It's been over a year since Aya Maruyama, pop idol and leader of band Pastel*Palettes, went missing, and Maya Yamato is determined to find out why. As she dives back into the idol industry and the secrets surrounding it, however, she uncovers secrets that no one, and especially not her, were ever supposed to see.





	1. memories

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to the story that has basically become my child at this point hhh. i've been working on this story for a really long time, and i am so excited to finally be able to share it!! i really hope you enjoy it, i've had a lot of fun working on it!

After a long, exhausting day of moving boxes, Maya Yamato curled into her soft bed, ready to relax and mindlessly watch YouTube videos. She scrolled through her recommended videos, skimming the titles as she went. _‘Idol industry secrets?’ No thanks. Already know enough of those myself. ‘How I met my soulmate?’ Nah._ Eventually, she came across a video titled _‘Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries’._ The thumbnail was a photo of Pastel*Palettes, posing for the camera. Or, more accurately, the _most recent lineup_ of Pastel*Palettes. Maya stared at the photo in silence, a strange feeling filling her chest as she looked at the idols. She hadn’t thought about them in so long. In fact, she had never expected to see them again.

 

~~~~~

 

_“...Yes. Just as I thought, you’re beautiful. Maya-san… will you join Pastel*Palettes?”_

_After Maya was chosen to join Pastel*Palettes, she panicked. She wasn’t an idol, she was a studio musician! She didn’t know the first thing about talking to people, let alone being a celebrity!_ _But despite all that, Pastel*Palettes had taken her by the hand wholeheartedly and together, they grew, even with the uncertainties surrounding them._

_Their first live show was an absolute failure. They had almost disbanded, pulling apart at the seams. They hit rock bottom before they could even rise. But Aya clawed them back out. She was probably the group’s saving grace. Had it not been for her, Maya and the other members likely would have lost hope. She was a shining light of positivity in the aftermath of their very first live show falling apart and having to build themselves back up for a second time. Aya was their light, their guide. Hard work couldn’t solve everything. But her willingness to put her all into Pastel*Palettes, despite the odds stacked up against them, pulled them out of their slump as she led them into the light of the idol world._

 

_~~~~~_

 

_“No no no no. Yamato-san. Move your head more.” Maya shifted slightly, turning her head towards the camera, and the photographer sighed for what seemed like the millionth time since the start of the shoot._

_“No, not that way- you know what… nevermind.” The photographer started to get down from her perch on the ladder, and Maya fiddled with the hem of her skirt awkwardly._

_“I-I’m sorry, I’m not very-”_

_“It’s ok, Amari-san. I can help.” A light voice cut her rambling off and Maya shot her head up to see Aya standing at the perimeter of the set. With a smile, she made her way towards them with tiny, light steps, her pigtails bouncing as she moved._

_“Ok, Maya-chan. Pose.” Maya assumed the position she had been holding earlier, her cheeks warming slightly as Aya looked her up and down._

_“Ah, Maya-chan. Tilt your head this way.” Suddenly, Aya’s delicate hands were pressed against Maya’s jaw, gently moving her head. “And! If you move your upper body this way, and rotate your shoulders, it’ll fix your posture!” Aya’s hands brushed Maya’s waist, and Maya couldn’t suppress a squeak of surprise. Her face felt like it was on fire as Aya moved her into position._

_“Good!” Aya smiled brightly, the corners of her eyes crinkling. Maya felt like she was looking directly into the sun. “Stay like that!” Aya smiled again, turning, before she skipped away. As Maya quietly watched her pick her way back across the set, a voice echoed through the room._

_“Aya-chan, where’d you go? We need you!” Hina bounced around the corner, dressed in a frilly outfit, similar to Aya’s._ _For a moment, Aya looked started._

_“_ _Oh, sorry!” As she ran over to Hina and back down the hallway, she looked over her shoulder at Maya with another radiant smile. “Good luck with the rest of the shoot, Maya-chan!”_

_Maya’s face heated for the umpteenth time, and she patted her cheeks, pressing her cool hands to her face.  _ _She ended up stumbling through the rest of the shoot in a daze, unable to keep her blush down._ **_Wh… What was that?_ **

 

_~~~~~_

 

_“Um… Excuse me?” Maya poked her head into the conference room. “I was told to come here…” The room was empty, and everything looked normal, but she noticed that the door to the stock room was open._

_“Hello?” Maya called out tentatively as she drew closer to the open door. Just as she got close enough to see down the stairs, the hallway door slammed open and a staff member walked in._

_“Ah,Yamato-san!” She chirped, gently grabbing Maya’s arm before she could even react and leading out of the room “We need to retake some measurements! Come with me.”_

_The staff member guided her down the hallway and into a large room that Maya was pretty sure she’d never seen before. Aya was already there, twirling around in a sparkly, pastel pink dress. Her hair was down and adorned with flowers, and tiny gems and sparkles made her face shine in the light. She looked absolutely_ ** _ethereal._ ** _As she noticed Maya, her face lit up and she waved, a radiant smile on her face. “Maya-chan!”_

_Maya waved back as she walked into the room, and Aya bounced on her feet, the movement making her sparkle in the light. “I have a photo shoot in a couple of minutes. Isn’t this dress so pretty? I love it!!” She twirled again and Maya couldn’t help but smile watching her._

_“It’s b- beautiful- you look gorgeous, Aya-san.” Aya giggled, her cheeks turning pink._

_“Thank you Maya-chan… Ah, I have to go now. See you later!” Aya skipped abruptly out of the room, leaving Maya staring after her. She hadn’t realized how long she had been standing there until the staff member came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Maya jumped, startled, and turned to her to see a teasing smile on her face._

_“Ah, she really does look_ **_beautiful_** _, don’t you think?”_

_“A-ah, uh…” Maya floundered, trying to find words. “I mean, she is, but…” The staff member quirked an eyebrow, obviously holding back a laugh. Maya’s cheeks warmed._

_“H-hey! Don’t get any ideas!”_

 

_~~~~~~_

 

 _“That was totally boppin’!” Hina cheered as they climbed down from the stage. “Aya-chan didn’t mess up at all! No, wait. She messed up a_ **_little_ ** _in her mc-ing.”_

_“Hinaaaaaa-chaaaaaaaan!” Aya whined. She jabbed at Hina with one hand, but Hina grabbed it and took off down the hall to their dressing room, pulling a shrieking Aya behind her._

_Maya laughed softly as she watched them, absentmindedly rubbing her wrists. They had been non-stop promoting their newest single, Tenka Toitsu A to Z, and Maya’s wrists had begun to hurt. Just a dull pain, nothing serious, but it made her nervous. It usually meant that she had been overworking herself, but she wasn’t going to have time to rest. Even that day, they still had multiple interviews and another performance to go to._

_“Ow…” She hissed. “I’m going to have to be careful.” Maya stared down at her wrists, biting her lip._

_“Ah, Maya-chan.” Maya looked up at the sound of Chisato’s voice, meeting her bandmate’s eyes. “Are you alright?”_

_“Ah- Chisato-san! It’s just-”_

_“_ **_Are you okay?_ ** _” There was an urgency to her voice, and a hardness, a desperation to Chisato’s eyes. Almost… a warning?_

_“Ah, uh, yeah… I’m fine.” Chisato smiled then, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes._

_“Good. Let’s go get changed, we have other schedules to attend to.” She grabbed Maya’s hand, and Maya allowed herself to be pulled down the hallway. Just as they rounded the corner and stepped into the dressing room, Maya could’ve sworn that she saw a staff member turn and walk down the hall._

 

_~~~~~~_

 

 _As they kicked off the start of Tenka Toitsu A to Z, Maya felt the pain in her wrists worsen dramatically, and she almost dropped her drumsticks. The pain was so distracting that she almost missed her line, and her voice came out weak and strained. The moment she finished singing, Eve shoot her a concerned look, and Maya plastered on the brightest smile she could muster, blinking tears out of her eyes._ **_We’re only performing a few songs. You can do it. Push through the pain._ ** _But as they continued into the chorus, the world swam before her eyes and Maya pitched forward, dropping her drumsticks and collapsing out of her seat. She hit the ground hard, and the world went dark. _

_~_

_“Maya-chan!” Maya opened her eyes with a groan to see her bandmates’ worried faces. Aya had her arm wrapped around Maya’s shoulders, propping her up, and Eve had both of her hands clasped between her own, her face pale. As her vision cleared, Maya pulled away from Aya and sat up on her own, but the moment she was upright, her head swam again._

_“I can keep going.” Maya pressed the ball of her hand to her temple and moved to stand up, but Aya grabbed her arm._

_“No! You already fainted. We can go without you. It’s not-“_

_“You have to keep going.” Chisato’s voice was laced with urgency, and as they made eye contact, she put both hands on Maya’s shoulders. “You have to.”_

_“I will.” Maya nodded as firmly as she could, and unsteadily got to her feet, tripping as she rose. Aya shot up from the floor with a shriek and grabbed Maya’s shoulder tightly, her eyes wide. Maya held Aya’s arm with both of her hands as she shakily sat down on her seat and leaned into the mic._

_“Sorry for the wait everyone! We’re going to continue on!” Maya infused as much confidence as she could into her voice, hoping desperately that she sounded convincing. At least, the audience seemed to buy it, cheering and turning their lightsticks green. Maya smiled at the audience, turning when she felt a weight- Aya’s hand- on her shoulder._

_“Here.” She handed Maya her drumsticks, her eyes full of concern. “Please be careful. Promise me that you’ll go get your wrists checked out as soon as we’re done.”_

_“I promise.” Maya smiled, and after a moment of silence Aya tentatively smiled back, turning to the front of the stage and bouncing back to her previous position._

_“You all ready?” She cheered, and the audience responded in stride._

_“We’re starting from the chorus.” Chisato called out, and Maya steeled herself, counting them in. As they kicked off the chorus for the second time, the pain returned, but this time Maya channeled it into her performance, her drumming strong and sure. Despite the pain in her wrists, Maya only had one thought in her mind:_ **_This is what I want to do. For as long as I can. I want to live on this stage with my friends and make music, until the day I can't anymore._ **

 

_~~~~~_

 

 _“Yamato-san, your results came back…” The nurse slipped back into the room, some paperwork in her hands. Maya clutched her wrists close to her chest, breathing in deeply to calm the growing feeling of panic in her stomach. In the back of her mind, Maya knew there had to be_ **_something_ ** _wrong. Extreme pain_ **_wasn’t_ ** _normal, and it had been going on for so long too... But there_ **_couldn’t_ ** _be something wrong. She still had performances. Still had interviews, practices, and countless fanmeets to do. The nurse cleared her throat, averting her eyes._ **_Was she nervous?_ **

_“You have bad stress fractures in both wrists. They must have developed weeks ago, but continued overuse has caused them to worsen. You will absolutely not be able to do any activities requiring primary use of your wrists,_ _especially_ _drumming, for at least 8 weeks, if not longer. If you injure your wrists further from overuse than you currently have, you_ **_will_ ** _need surgery.”_

 _“W-what?”_ **_No._ ** _Maya’s world stopped._ **_No no no no no no. This can’t be happening._ **

_The nurse smiled sympathetically, but it didn’t reach her eyes._

_“We’ll need to cast both, and you’re going to have to take a hiatus. I will get you a doctors’ note for your agency. If they have a problem with it, have them talk to us.” As the rest of the appointment continued, Maya let the nurses lead her numbly through the procedures and paperwork, trying to push aside the dread rising in her chest._

 

_~~~~~_

 

_Maya felt the pit of nervousness deepen as she drew closer to the agency’s entrance, paperwork clutched tightly in both hands. She took a deep breath and walked through the front doors, trying to keep her breathing steady. Aya, who had been sitting in one of the chairs by the front desk, leapt to her feet as soon as their eyes met._

_“How’d it go?” Aya’s voice was hopeful, a tentative smile on her face. Maya held up her wrists in a wordless answer, and her smile fell immediately. There was a single, charged moment of silence before Aya wordlessly opened her arms, and_ _Maya rushed into the comforting embrace. Wrapped in Aya’s arms, Maya finally felt herself break down- both physically, falling to her knees in an overwhelming cascade of emotion, and mentally, the dread of her undecided fate with Pastel Palettes weighing her down._ _Aya pulled her closer, and Maya buried her face in her shoulder, her sobs wracking her body._

_“I don’t know what I’m going to do…” She choked out._

_“It’s going to be okay.” Aya pulled away and placed her hands on Maya’s shoulders. Their eyes met, and Aya took one of Maya’s hands in hers, her touch gentle. “We’ll make sure it’s okay. Now, you gotta go talk to management. You can do this! Okay?” Maya sniffled, nodding._

_“It’ll be okay.” Maya wiped the tears from her face with shaking hands and carefully rose to her feet. She took a deep, shuddering breath and closed her eyes. As she steeled herself, she felt Aya come up next to her and link their arms._

_“I’m coming with you.” She sounded confident, but there was a tremor in her voice._

_“B-but-” Maya spluttered._

_“No buts! I’m coming too. If they don’t want me there, they’ll kick me out. But I’m not gonna let you do this alone.”_

_And together, with Aya leading the way, they made the long walk towards the meeting rooms._

 

_~~~~~_

 

 _As Maya and Aya arrived at the meeting rooms,_ _Maya felt a light touch on her arm and looked over to meet Aya’s gentle eyes._ _She took Maya’s hands in her own and Maya realized with a start that she was shaking._

_“It’s gonna be fine.” Aya whispered as they were approached by a staff member._

_“Oh, you’re back.” The staff member smiled slightly as she looked them up and down. Suddenly, she seemed to notice Maya’s casts, and her face grew grim._

_“Maruyama-san. Go get the other band members, please. Yamato-san, come on in and sit down. I’ll go get the higher ups.” The staff member turned and walked away, and Aya turned to Maya again._

_It’s going to be okay.” She smiled brightly, but it looked hollow. Aya whirled around and hurried back down the hall, leaving Maya alone in the hallway. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open, stepping quietly into the conference room. A singular staff member stood in the back. When they made eye contact, his eyebrows raised sharply, but he remained silent. Maya sat down at the seat closest to the door and placed her paperwork on the table in front of her, trying as hard as she could to keep her breathing steady._ **_It’s gonna be fine. It’s gonna be fine._ **

_For what was probably only a couple of minutes, but felt like hours, Maya sat in silence, practically curling in on herself as time passed._

_“Maya-san!” Eve’s voice broke the silence so sharply that Maya jumped a foot in the air, her head shooting up sharply. Her bandmates tumbled into the room, and Maya noticed with a sinking feeling that they all looked_ **_terrified_ ** _. Even Hina was unnaturally quiet, a rare frown on her face. Quickly, the rest of Pastel*Palettes sat down, the only sound that of the chairs being pulled away from the table. Aya took the seat directly to Maya’s right, with Chisato taking the left. Aya grabbed Maya’s hand under the table, and when their eyes met, Maya noticed the fear in her eyes. Maya opened her mouth to say something_ _\- perhaps a word of comfort or reassurance to the both of them- but before she could, the door on the other side of the room opened to reveal the emerging higher-ups._ _Almost immediately, the president of the agency looked directly at Maya with a scrutinizing look that made her feel even smaller. Next to her, she heard Aya take in a sharp breath, and the grip on her hand tightened._ _The tension in the room could be cut with a knife as the higher-ups silently took their seats at the other side of the table._

_The president stared at Maya for what felt like hours, before clearing his throat sharply, the sound breaking the silence for the second time. “Talk.”_

_“I- uh…” Maya took in a shuddering breath and let go of Aya’s hand, but immediately started to flounder. She took a couple of deep breaths in an effort to ground herself again, and placed both casted wrists onto the conference room table and stared hard at the table in front of her, trying not to met anyone's eyes._

_“I have bad… stress fractures. In both wrists…” Hot tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, and Maya blinked them furiously away, trying to swallow the growing lump in her throat. “The doctor said… That if I play anymore before they heal… I’ll need surgery.” Eve audibly gasped, and Maya stared down at her papers, trying desperately not to let the tears fall. She pulled her hands back down under the table and immediately, Aya had her hand again, holding it tightly. There was a moment of thick, tense silence, before the president cleared his throat and Maya looked back up at him. He looked regretful, and Maya felt her stomach plummet._ **_Please no. No no no no._ **

_“Yamato-san, I truly apologize, but there is no other option available to us.” Maya tightened her grip on Aya’s hand and took a deep breath in a pathetic attempt to prepare herself for the inevitable._

 

_“Yamato-san, I once again apologize, but from this day forward… you will no longer be a member of Pastel*Palettes.”_


	2. a discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaa this is so late, i'm sorry!! i meant to get this out much, MUCH sooner, but school decided to punch me in the face and i ended up with no time or energy to write a whole lot. i still fully intend to finish this story, though! the next update or two might take a bit since the school year is ending and finals are coming up, but once summer starts i should actually be able to stick pretty closely to a schedule!!   
> thank you so much for the support on chapter one, and i hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

_After Maya had gotten kicked from Pastel*Palettes, she didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t play the drums. She couldn’t work with her friends. With both of her wrists in casts, she could barely do anything at all._

_Thus, her parents thought it best to move. Far, far away. The Yamato family completely uprooted and moved their entire lives to a sleepy town miles away from Tokyo. At first, Maya kept contact with the other members, as painful as it was. They texted often and sent numerous photos of their new, distant lives. But eventually, updates just… stopped. Although Maya continued to reach out, the conversations became increasingly one-sided and eventually, she simply stopped trying. She tried to make new friends, but it did not take long for her to realize that most of her peers were just interested in being friends with her because she had been in a popular idol group. In the end, Maya blocked all mentions and accounts of Pastel*Palettes on her social media, unable to even look at the group anymore. She found herself unable to drum, unable to work, and far from her old home and friends. For the first time, she felt well and truly alone._

 

~~~

 

Maya sucked in a shaky breath and wiped desperately at the tears that she hadn’t realized she was shedding.

“It already happened, there’s no point… in crying about it now…” She shook her head sharply and focused on steadying her breathing. _Screw it._  Maya sighed heavily, wiped the remaining wetness from her cheeks, and clicked on the video. Most of it was standard fare, stories she had seen a few times around the Internet, and she quickly grew bored, scrolling through her recommended videos to find something more entertaining. As she was about to click away, the narrator moved on to the last number on the list and Maya paused, her stomach plummeting.

“...And now, for the number one unsolved mystery… The disappearance of Aya Maruyama!” _What?!_ Maya, suddenly alert, clicked the video to fullscreen. She listened with growing dread as the narrator explained that the pop idol had apparently gone missing without a trace, almost a year ago. She sat up sharply and tossed her phone aside. It slid onto the floor with a thump, but she was so distracted that she didn’t even notice. She grabbed the backpack that had been laying near the foot of her bed and tore through it until she found what she had been looking for- her laptop. She hopped back onto her bed, opening it up and pulling up the internet with shaking hands. She typed in ‘Aya Maruyama’, and clicked on the news tab. A few announcements of her disappearance popped up, all from over a year ago. But no updates. Nothing. _Aren’t there usually more announcements about this sort of stuff?_ Maya  scrolled further. Pastel*Palettes going on hiatus? _What?!_ Maya clicked on the article. Following the wake of losing a member, the group would be going on an indefinite hiatus. _Understandable_ . But wait- the article cites losing the new drummer of the group, not _Aya_.

“Shouldn’t this article at least _mention_ her?” Maya opened one of the idol group’s social media pages in a new tab. No recent updates. She scrolled through their page for a few seconds. There were literally _no photos_ with Aya in them. And there were definitely photos that she should have been in, like a photo Maya had taken with her and Chisato that she vividly remembered posting. In fact, It was almost as if she had never been in the group in the first place, if not for a couple of group announcements all the way at the bottom of the page from years ago with the group’s _original_ lineup _._ Maya’s photos had been left up, why hadn’t Aya’s?

“She’s literally a celebrity, shouldn’t this have been a bigger deal?! Like with… the lineup... change,” Maya mumbled as she clicked back into her original tab and scrolled further down the search results. She opened a message board centered around the idol’s disappearance, hoping it would give her more insight into the situation. _Nothing._ Almost every single message had been deleted, save for one or two that offered very little information. Maya clicked out of the message board, a panicked feeling rising in her chest. _What was going on?!_ Aya- a _celebrity, and her_ **_friend_ ** \- had disappeared without a trace, leaving everything around her untouched, and there was almost nothing about it? It didn’t even look like an _investigation_ had been launched! This _couldn’t_ be normal. There was no way. Although Maya’s hands were shaking violently, she managed to pick her phone from the floor and scroll through her contacts until she found the one she wanted. _Kaoru Seta._

 

 ** _Maya:_** hey kaoru-san, could i ask you something?

 ** _Kaoru:_** Why yes, Maya, you may. I must say, it’s been a quite a long while since we have last spoken. Is something bothering you?

 ** _Maya:_** sorry if this is a touchy subject but

 ** _Maya:_** do you know anything about aya maruyama? i don’t know anything, but you’re friends with chisato-san so i thought you might know something…

 **_Kaoru:_ ** Ah. I’m afraid I cannot say much on the matter, Maya. All I can tell you is that you probably shouldn’t involve yourself in this situation, for your own good.

 ** _Maya:_** is that all you can tell me? i’m kinda freaking out since i only found out about her just now, and we were… friends.

 ** _Kaoru:_** I am truly sorry, Maya. All I can tell you is that Aya wouldn’t want you to worry about her, and I do advise you once again to not involve yourself in the situation.

 ** _Maya:_** oh,, ok. thank you anyway, i guess?

 ** _Kaoru:_** You’re very welcome. I lament that I cannot help you further.

 

Maya frowned at her phone. _That was weird…_ _Really weird._ _What did she mean by that? Maybe something happened with Chisato-san? At any rate, I’m not going to get an answer from Kaoru. Maybe I should ask around, but I don’t know who to go to with something like this…_

She continued to aimlessly swipe through her contacts, but a notification reminding her of her first day of classes back in Tokyo interrupted her.

“Oh yeah!” Maya shot up. “I have school tomorrow. I can just just ask a classmate or something.”

As Maya shoved her laptop back into her bag and got ready for bed, she couldn’t stop thinking about Pastel*Palettes, and more specifically, Aya. _How had no one noticed? Why was I never even told of this situation? And why was Kaoru acting so strange? Her language is usually flowery and hard to understand, but what was that warning? ‘For my own good’? What is_ **_going on_ ** _here?!_ Even as she climbed into her bed and tried desperately to fall asleep, Maya was left with a lingering sense of unease and a sick feeling in her stomach. She didn’t get much sleep that night.

 

~~~

 

Maya was barely able to focus on her classes- she was too distracted with last night’s discovery and her own feelings of confusion and helplessness. She barely noticed the day whizz by, and was only brought back to her senses by the sound of a strangely familiar voice.

“Maya-senpai?” Maya looked up sharply. One of the members of Afterglow, (Uehara?) was staring at her, a mixture of shock and concern dancing in her eyes. An awkward silence descended upon them, all while Uehara opened and closed her mouth repeatedly in an obvious effort to find the right words. _Oh boy._.. “You… I thought… You left.”

Maya rubbed her arms, shifting. This was definitely not a conversation she had expected or particularly wanted to have. “Ah… yeah. I did. But I’m back for school…”

“...Oh.” _This is so awkward._ “Didn’t you get, yknow. Replaced?”

“Uh… yeah…”

Uehara bounced awkwardly on her feet and took a step forward. “Why?”

Maya shrugged helplessly. “I really don’t know.” She started for the door, Uehara following close behind.

“If you don’t mind me asking… What happened to Aya-san?”

Maya stopped short, taking a deep breath.  “I… don’t know. I don’t know anything.” She shook her head and kept walking. Uehara was silent for a moment, until they reached the classroom doors.

“How do you not know? You were-”

“It’s not very _boppin’_ to stick your nose in other people’s business, _don’t you think?”_ Maya’s breath caught in her throat. Hina was standing at the doorway, leaning against the wall with an dark look on her face.

“H- Hina-san?!”

Hina pushed off the wall and looked Maya dead in the eye. Her eyes were stormy, and the persistent smile that Maya had come to know was nowhere to be seen, replaced instead with a dark scowl. She was almost unrecognizable.

“Especially you _… Yamato-san.”_

Having been friends with Hina for quite a while, Maya knew for a fact that Hina was very rarely formal with anyone, and _especially_ not her friends. She took a step back, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes as she fought to keep her voice steady. “You know it wasn’t my fault that I left. I had to get out. You know that better than anyone!”

“You left us _!”_ Hina’s voice came out as a shrill shout, her eyes burning. It scared her. Maya took another step back. This wasn’t the Hina she knew. It couldn’t be.

“ _You left us!_ It was like we meant nothing to you!” Hina rubbed furiously at her eyes, “you didn’t even text us when Aya-chan… left.”

She took a couple threatening steps towards Maya until their faces were inches apart. Maya stumbled back again.

“H- Hina-san!”

Hina took another step in, and when Maya leaned away, Hina forcefully grabbed her collar. She looked furious, but- there were tears rolling down her cheeks, and although her grasp on Maya’s collar was strong, her hands were visibly shaking.

“D-don’t. Don’t you _ever-_ ”

“Hina-san!” A shrill voice cut through the air, and Hina practically threw her back, sending them staggering away from each other. Eve was standing behind Hina, her eyes wide.

“Hina-san, what-” Then her eyes seemed to land on Maya, and she visibly started, taking a step back.

“M-Maya-san…?” Maya smiled awkwardly, fidgeting. Eve seemed a bit less apprehensive than Hina, at least?

“I… You…” Eve rubbed at her eyes, taking a step forward. Her voice was shaking, and her face was full of emotion, as if she couldn't decide whether to be happy or upset. Maya, herself, wasn’t sure either. Eve took another step forward, and Maya felt hope bloom in her chest, until Hina spoke up again, the tears now flowing freely down her cheeks.

“Don’t fall for her… her _lies!_ If _Yamato-san_ over here wanted to be apart of this _mystery_ , a mystery of one of our _closest friends_ disappearing, she should’ve cared a long time ago!”

“N-no...” Maya trailed off unconvincingly as she helplessly watched Eve visibly close up, all past vulnerability gone.

“Oh.” Her voice was cold, and it stung more than Maya was willing to admit. “Hina-san, we have a meetup planned with Chisato-san today. We’re going to be late.”

"Oh, I forgot about that. I got... distracted." Hina turned her back completely to Maya, blocking her off. Maya dropped her gaze to her feet, willing herself not to cry as her former band mates, her former _friends,_ finished their conversation and walked away, leaving Maya alone, for the second time, in the dark, cold hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've put maya through so much in this fic and its only chapter 2 i'm so sorry maya i love you


End file.
